A Mid-July Harvest

I look forward to this time every year.  The first artichokes are in.  (Yes!  It's possible to grow artichokes in Vermont!)  They don't seem to mind the hotter than usual weather we've been experiencing so far this summer, though the plants are growing much lower to the ground than usual.   I know what I'll be eating for the rest of the week.

Also, my onions are looking fairly decent compared to years past.  I went back to starting them from seed and waited until the chance of any frost was over before setting them out.  This seemed to have helped.


Aside from the Sungold and Black cherries, I picked our first slicing tomato this past weekend - a Cherokee Purple I believe.  Usually the first tomatoes of the season aren't so great but this one was VERY good.  It still amazes me how different (and amazing) homegrown heirloom tomatoes are compared to anything you might find at the supermarket or even most farmers markets.

I also picked the first hot peppers of summer.   Hungarian Wax is incredibly early and always a reliable producer.

And they make the best pickled hot peppers in my opinion. 

Our Raised Beds

These pictures are outdated at this point but here's an idea of what we have planted in the raised beds behind our unit.  The largest one closest to the house contains most of my tomatoes, all of my peppers, some cucumbers and bush beans.  I'm not growing nearly as many tomatoes as I used to but I still think that we'll have enough to suit our needs.

I was hoping that, like the slugs, the cucumber beetles here would not be as bad as they were at the old garden.  Unfortunately, they are even WORSE and it'll be interesting to see whether I'll be able to get a decent cucumber harvest this year.


I also have some container tomatoes this years.  Orange Blossom is the lone early determinate tomato I'm growing this year.  I figured it would be best suited for container growing.

In addition to these, we have melons and zucchini planted behind our house.  And as the spring greens and veggies clear out, I'll plant our falls veggies starting in late July.

I still find it fascinating to think that these little flowers result in something as amazingly delicious as an heirloom tomato.

Tomatoes and Peppers

I think I started my tomatoes and peppers a bit too early this year.  I've never had tomato seedlings grow this quickly before.  Then again, I've never had growing room that provided the kind of warmth and light that tomato plants love.


At the moment, my tomatoes are about two feet tall.  I decided to move them to our unheated screened porch which still gets tons of light from a glass ceiling.  Hopefully this cooler environment will slow down their growth until it's warm enough for me to set them out.

A Mid-October Harvest

Is it really mid-October already? In a lot of ways, it feels more like Spring as we've had so much precipitation lately that the garden is now covered with mud and standing water. This generally only happens in early March when the ground is still frozen and the water has nowhere to go. The soil in my growing beds resembles a saturated sponge. Hopefully, our veggies won't rot from the excess moisture.

Another great week for harvesting carrots and turnips - these have been very tasty roasted.


I harvested half of my cauliflower crop this week - 4 heads. They're not huge but are still the best I've grown so far.


I love cauliflower simply steamed and finished with a bit of butter. When you have veggies this fresh, it doesn't really make sense to add too much seasoning.


The broccoli is starting to produce a generous amount of side shoots. I like to harvest the young leaves as well as they are very tender.


Salad greens - I didn't grow a mix this fall like I did in past years. This time around, I just walked around the garden and just sniped what looked good - several varieties of lettuce, beet greens, baby spinach, basil, parsley and some Red Russian kale.


Yesterday, I found this little guy tucked away in the melon patch. I didn't have much hope that it would be any good but I picked it anyway.


To my surprise, it was ripe when I cut into it. Aside from having somewhat of a hollow heart, it was actually quite good. In fact, I dare to say that it was one of the sweetest and crunchiest melons I picked all year long. It was indeed an unexpected delight.


I also picked too lovely heads of tatsoi. The slugs have had a field day with my Asian greens this fall but these two have made it through relatively unscathed.


Finally, these Poblanos are undoubtedly the last peppers of the year. They're too small to roast and peel but will be tasting sliced and cooked in a stir-fry.

The fall growing season is just flying by. I can't wait to see what you all are harvesting this week!

Early Fall Harvest

We had an amazing harvest this past week. Our fall garden is at its peak right now and there is so much to choose from. We'll see how long this will last as our first light frost should arrive soon.

All of our broccoli plants matured this past week. We picked 15 good-sized heads and have been eating broccoli almost everyday. As you can see, a couple of the heads were beginning to flower.


Next year, I'm planning on growing even more broccoli. It's one brassica that produces reliably in our garden and is fairly easy to grow. I like to allow the individual buds to get fairly large (unlike supermarket broccoli) until they are on the verge of flowering. Personally, I think the texture and taste is better at this stage.


In addition to the broccoli, we also harvested some carrots and Chinese broccoli (gai lan).


I'm really happy with my 'Napoli' carrots this fall. Last year, the field mice did away with our entire crop. Growing them in taller raised beds seems to deter them.


I really like Chinese broccoli, which is grown primarily for its tender stalk. Ours are as thick as silver dollars this year. (Thanks again for the seeds Mac!) I stir-fry them peeled and sliced on a bias. Also, they stay crispy when cooked.


I also picked most of our remaining peppers and chilies and was amazed by how healthy the plants still look.


I'm planning on fresh pickling the pepperoncini (right) and most of the Hungarian Wax peppers.


I'd like to make hot sauce from the jalapenos (if someone has a recipe, please pass along!) and chili paste from the Thai chilies.


The poblanos will be roasted, peeled and frozen for winter use.

The last 'Sunshine' watermelon of the year weighed in at 10 pounds, which is average for this particular variety.


I waited until the tendril closest to the melon had died back, which seemed to work this time. The flesh was perfectly yellow and very sweet.


I tried to salvage as many green tomatoes as I could from the now dead vines. Hopefully they'll still ripen indoors.


Finally, I pruned back my Kaffir lime tree this past weekend. The leaves are now frozen and will be used to flavor curries and soups.

It's Good to be Home - Peppers

I'll say it again - I feels really good to be home. For much of this week, I was in Phoenix, Arizona for work. It felt a bit strange to go from our New England weather to a desert climate where temperatures reached into the upper 90's during the day and 80's during the night. Even stranger was the fact that everyone I ran into seemed to be happy about it, or more specifically, happy that it wasn't 110 degrees F. I will admit that I felt a sense of relief when I got into my car at Logan airport tonight and the thermometer read 53 degrees.

Despite the weather, I rather enjoyed my time in Phoenix. I loved the desert foliage and the Spanish-style homes. And I'm sure that some of our summer veggies would love the dry heat and brilliant sun that the southwest has to offer. Nevertheless, earlier this week, I noticed that my zone 6 Poblano pepper plants are over 6 feet tall now! Amazingly, they still look perfectly healthy unlike our tomatoes.

I've been purposefully waiting to harvest most of my Poblano peppers. If you pick them too early, the flesh will be too thin to be worth the hassle of roasting and pealing them.


Finally, I noticed that my Pepperoncini peppers have turned a bright lipstick red color. I think this will be the last year I'll grow them. As much as I tried to like them, I'm not too fond of their slightly bitter taste.

Early September Harvest

Can you believe we're approaching the middle of September already? I consider September to be a fleeting month in the gardening calendar but this is ridiculous. The garden is transitioning quickly right before our eyes (too quickly if you ask me) and before before you know it, most of our summer crops will be reduced to dust. The daily highs are expected to reach only into the 60's later on this week. Something tells me that our first fall frost will arrive earlier than usual this year.

This weekend, I picked all of my Sweet Banana peppers and pulled the plants to make room for some fall sowings of radishes, claytonia and mache. I'm a bit late with these this year but that's what happens when your garden is overtaken by mosquitoes.


The tomato vines are looking horrible now. Our paste tomatoes are still producing but the rest have succumb to disease.




The fall berries are coming in consistently, but a little at a time. I might try to root some raspberry canes next year to expand our current patch.


Finally, I ripped out our zucchini vines last week and discovered these two monsters. They are hard and heavy at this point. I wonder if they are even edible at this stage. At the very least, we can use them as fall decorations.

Late August Harvest

A few weeks ago I was speculating that we might not have planted enough tomatoes this year. Well, let's just say that I'm not feeling that way now.


I'm happy to say that we've now preserved enough tomato sauce, puree(for soup) and salsa to get us through the next 12 months. Sure we weren't able to give away as many tomatoes as I would have liked but 20 plants seem to be the magic number for us. More than that just creates more unnecessary work and would waste valuable growing space.


Our peppers have done really well this year, particularly the Hungarian Wax. I've been roasting, peeling and freezing all of them. I have a lot of Jalapeno peppers that I think I'll let turn red and then make hot sauce.


Before this weekend's storm arrived, I pulled the rest of my soy beans.


We ended up with a good haul of pods, which has since been frozen. Edamame is a great snack for kids because the steamed beans are so fun to shell and eat.


I also picked two of our Blacktail Mountain watermelons and acorn squash. The squash vine was practically dead from borers and powdering mildew.


The first watermelon I picked was good.

The second one I picked was GREAT!

A Good Year for Peppers

I'm surprised by how well our peppers have done this summer compared to last year. Our Hungarian Wax peppers have been prolific and the Poblano plants are about 5 feet tall now. I'm hoping that it had something to do with how I fertilized them this year. One of my plants had succumb to disease but the rest have remained perfectly healthy.


Poblanos might just be at the top of my list of favorite peppers. I generally roast all of them on the grill, peel the skins and then store them in the freezer. They are primarily reserved for one of our all-time favorite recipes - a Roasted Poblano Pepper and Corn Soup. It packs some heat and is perfect on those chilly fall evenings. I'll have to post the recipe sometime soon.